Mission

Researching Ways to Make Memories Last a Lifetime

UCI MIND seeks to enhance the quality of life for the elderly by researching factors and lifestyle approaches that promote successful brain aging. Toward this end, the Institute facilitates and coordinates a number of activities, some of which are listed below:

Recruit participants to maintain a research cohort of individuals who have a Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), mild Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia or Down syndrome, or are cognitively normal.

Follow patients long-term to evaluate their clinical and neuropsychological health.

Partner with community-based organizations serving individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia and transmit new information to community professionals and the general public.

Sponsor seminars and meetings to promote scholarship and information exchange.

Pursue resource development to stimulate research through individual and collaborative grants.

Train and educate the next generation of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the field of brain aging and neurodegeneration.

Develop and maintain common facilities.

Develop a base of community supporters to facilitate fundraising.

Support interdisciplinary, investigator-initiated research and recruit and train the next generation of investigators.

Community

Understanding the basic mechanisms of brain aging while developing effective treatments for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease is of local and national importance. People over 65 years old are the fastest growing segment of the American population. Today, this cohort comprises 13 percent of the population, although it is expected that the percentage of people over 65 will increase to 20 percent of the population, or over 54 million individuals, by the year 2020. Maintaining cognitive function is vitally important to the quality of life for seniors. With age, however, the odds of developing dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease in particular, increase markedly. Dementia affects roughly 12 percent of 65-74 year-olds and alarmingly up to 47% of people older than 85.

Orange County is one of the fastest growing national metropolitan sites today and has more than 75,000 individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or a high risk for developing it. The county’s older adult population is expected to nearly double in the next 20 years. And, by 2030, 63% of the area’s population is expected to be non-Caucasian. The diagnosis, management and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are major challenges permeating all levels of social and economic status in a diversity of cultures. The community looks to the University and the Institute for leadership, and in turn the Institute seeks to provide scholarly education and discoveries to a populace severely impacted by the disease. The Institute is well positioned to meet emerging research needs in the field and to translate these findings to relevant clinical practice in the local community.

Support Alzheimer’s research by joining us for upcoming events and educational opportunities.